General from Thinking and Making

Useful useless things we taught our toddler

Austin Govella — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:14:45 GMT

This week, we taught the kiddo how to “zerbert” someone's belly. This is also called “rasberries”. Regardless of what you call it, we call it fun. When you meet him, we will make sure he gives you the proper greeting by zerberting your belly.

We also taught him how to “zerbert” his hands. This is very similar to making “fart noises”, but what responsible parent would teach such a thing? Tacky. And crass.

We long ago taught him how to use lotion, and he enjoys lotioning both his belly and his arms. Now we have taught him the joy of lotioning other people.

It's as if spas employed little woodland gnomes who emerge from their warm burroughs to gently rub lotion on your drying skin. Give him some lotion, point him at your feet, and let him work his magic.

Lastly, it's interesting that two of the words he speaks in the Queen's English are “hi” and “bye-bye”. The majority of his vocabulary wiggles out through this terribly cute toddler drawl, but his basic phatic communication is very, very clear. With hi, bye, and no, he barely needs any other English at all.

But the English he has picked up at daycare includes important social words and phrases like “mine”, “let me” (similar to mine), and “I see”.

A new design

Austin Govella — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:02:51 GMT

Just launched a new design. I'm proud. Not because it's the greatest design ever, but because it really matches who I am with what I need. I'm a contrarian at heart. My design is driven by what others aren't doing rather than by what it needs to do, but as someone who believes so much in the user experience, what's a contrarian to do when the prevalent style becomes clean, usable, readable websites? That's my style! So, the post page becomes this crazy mash of colliding elements before slipping into quiet order below the fold. Then the elements start colliding again in the footer. I love it. The main page and everywhere else are oddly utilitarian. But, at least they're overseen by the mummyhead. It's either a sad or disturbing icon about the self. Stolen from the Situationists and adorned with grungey, paint splatter angel wings, it floats over a logotype set in a classical style. I'm not sure what that says, but it's me.

An Armani Casa ad from this Sunday's New York Times Style Magazine.

In this Sunday's New York Times Style Magazine, a slew of furniture ads seemed to reflect an underlying fear of globalization present in much of the Western world. Each ad represented an onslaught of the different, the foreign, and the strange, and each onslaught was kept back by a reliance on the super-clean lines of modernism; those same lines that reflect education and class as the West's cultural redoubt against all things foreign.

All that wasn't in my head at the time, but this is my response. It's odd. Despite feeling so disconnected from the Design world, you can describe my work the same way. I’m a contrarian, but even I fall victim to the same fears. In the West, everything is changing, and no one knows what the fuck is going on. Seems like everywhere I look nowadays, you can sense that society is reacting to that.

There and back again (a return to Houston)

Austin Govella — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:21:00 GMT

The last three weeks have been beyond crazy and bizarre. Finally, I can detect a hint of normalcy creeping into my life. Three weeks ago I was preparing the windows for a Philadelphian winter and hanging new art on the walls. Two weeks ago, I arrived back in Philadelphia from a visit to Houston. One week ago, I pulled into Houston behind the wheel of a U-Haul that gets 8 miles to the gallon when hastily loaded with the various accoutrements of ones life. I'm still working for Comcast, no doubt because it's a great place to work. (They're hiring!!!) Today is my first real day in my new "office". I set up the wireless network, cleared a place for the laptop, handed the toddler off to our man nanny (or "manny", as we call him), and hit my to-do list. Houston hasn't changed at all. The bars and clubs have new owners. The good restaurants are closed. The mediocre ones are still dependable, and the bad ones still looks as unloved and grimy as they ever have. My previously involved friends are married and/or spawning, everyone's moving into the Heights, and an unhealthy obsession for karaoke has crept into my social circle. It's good to see everyone again and good to be home even though the circumstances were rather abrupt. Working remotely should be interesting. I'm already missing working with the Fancast team and my peeps at Comcast. So, anyway. I'm in Houston. Refresh Houston is Wednesday and there's a holiday party thrown by printers on Thursday. If you're in town and want to get together, give me a holler.